Talk:Nova/@comment-25162335-20150108173612/@comment-25266794-20150110153818
We actually manage to find the keys, and probably more quickly than Dad ever did. And Jess does seem to be a fairly good driver, although the police pull us over once to see if I'm actually tall enough to ride in the front seat. Uffda. We could be any other teenagers. Except all 16-year-olds seem to think that they are too cool to talk to people younger than they are, much less drive around with them. Even Jess used to be that way. Not any more, though. We have more important things to worry about. We have bought a laptop and I'm keeping up with the news. We need to leave the Twin Cities in case the police here recognize Jess. She asks for suggestions. “How about somewhere we won't get hypothermia?” I ask Jess hopefully. She laughs. “Sure,” she says, shrugging. I smile. We're in the middle of nowhere now. And there's still snow. Another car nearly hits us. Jess honks and flashes a rude gesture at the car. I stare. “Sorry,” she says. The car slows down and pulls over to the side. Our car seems to be responding to an exterior force and is pulling over too. I guess that we can't open the car doors. But I try anyway. Of course it doesn't work. Someone gets out of the other car. Not police. Whoever this is comes over to our car and the window opens for him. We only have to look at him to know that he is another mutant. Jess stares at him. “What do you want?” she asks. “Safety in numbers,” I hear. Jess raises her eyebrows. I don't think she trusts him. “Who's the kid?” he asks. “Your younger sister?” Jess sighs but doesn't respond. He calls someone's name. “The older one is Social Cloaking. Watch out for that. The younger one is Formulated Sand Blasts,” the person responds. Social Cloaking. So that's what Jess's power is called. “But you're so young,” he says to me. Jess rolls her eyes. I glare as nastily as I can. Which probably isn't really very nastily. He laughs. “Out of the car,” he says. “Follow me.” Jess nods helplessly. The one that talked to us seemed to be the leader. They want us to go with them. But I don't. They don't want to let me bring Rex. I can't just leave him here to die in the cold. “The only thing this girl has left is her cat,” Jess says. “Just let her keep it. Or better, let us go.” But they won't. I think that they want our car. They eventually consent to bringing Rex, but I think they're just tired of arguing in the cold. They get into my car, one of them in the driver's seat. Jess opens her mouth. “No,” one of them says. “You're not driving. We don't trust you. You get to be in the other car.” These people are terrifying. I wonder what happened to make them like this. Jess shakes her head. “I stay with Maureen,” she tells them. I guess that they are really fed up with arguing, because she ends up sitting in the backseat and I'm in the middle between her and some idiot, still playing games on the laptop. At least they haven't confiscated that.